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Post Conference Overview:
By: David Itokazu, MD, Chairman, OICL
The first Okinawa International Conference on Longevity (OICL) was held on Nov.12-13, 2001 in the hall of the Bankoku
Shinryo, Okinawa. The conference hall was built specifically for the historic economic summit meetings of the heads of
states of highly industrialized nations called the G-7 or G-8 including Russia. The hall is designed to accommodate
comfortably a maximum of 250 people (including the family members, working staff, security and media personnel). And
this is the place where the first OICL was held. Just outside the conference hall, the participants and speakers enjoyed
the spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean and the setting of the golden sun. The peaceful ambiance of the conference hall, let everyone to relax and appreciate the learning and sharing experience.
For the first time, OICL was able to communicate to the world by way of scientific conference on Okinawans' longevity
and successful aging. Surprisingly, more than a dozen major international newspapers and medical journals published
articles about the conference. In Japan alone, twenty-four million readers had access to the conference through print
medium. Likewise, our homepage had an average of 10,000 visitors a month from all over the world. Aside from many
television news reports, the conference was featured in a nationwide NHK educational program on longevity for four consecutive nights in January 2002, two months after the conference.
A total of 242 registered delegates from 14 countries attended the conference. They heard discussions of Okinawans'
longevity as well as other topics relating to longevity such as biological, clinical and geriatric medicine.
We had seven keynote speakers representing different specialties all related to aging and longevity. Most of the
keynote speakers were world-class researchers, academicians and clinicians. Their abstracts were all posted in our
post-conference homepage, and subsequently published as a supplement to the Journal of Okinawa Chubu Hospital, Nov.2001:ISSN 1344-1256
Okinawa Statistics
Okinawans' vital statistics on aging are impressive compared to mainland Japanese. For instance, the four leading
causes of death in all Japan in 2000 are cancer, heart disease, CVA (stroke) and pneumonia. These diseases represent
68.6% of total death in Japan. Based on the official data released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, (MHW) 2000,
Okinawa has the lowest death rates from these four diseases compared to the national average and to top ranking life expectancy (at birth) prefectures in Japan: Nagano, Shimane, Fukui and Kochi. 
In recent years, longevity (i.e. the number centenarians) has emerged as one of the important key factors in health care
system in the world. Consequently, the statistics for centenarians have been included as part of MHW Annual Vital
Statistics Report. MHW has officially recognized Okinawa prefecture as the number one prefecture for centenarians for 12 consecutive years.
During the fiscal year from April 2001 to March 2002, there were 455 Okinawan centenarians; additionally, there were 102 elderly Okinawans 99 years old, turning 100 before the end of fiscal year 2002. On the occasion of
"Respect-for-the-Aged Day" in September, a new list of names of centenarians and 99-year olds is to be published as a
matter of tradition on Okinawa. The population of Okinawa in the year 2000 was 1,300,000. Okinawa may have the highest concentration of centenarians in the world at 35 per 100,000 in contrast to an average of 10 in most
industrialized countries. In mainland Japan, the national average for centenarian is 12.19 with Saitama prefecture having
the lowest rate at 5.48 per 100,000 . Okinawa has demonstrated a healthy longevity with a life expectancy of 77 for men and 85 years old for women.
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